Poor Customer Service

If you have a problem, it seems no-one but the person you first spoke to about it, is the only one who can help. What do I mean? Well here is my story. I went to the bank to collect some money sent to me via Western Union. Somewhere between the bank and where I went, I misplaced my voters identification card.
Luckily for me, I still have the Western Union receipt slip which has the details for my Voters Identification card. So I went to the bank and met a banking officer who told me she could help. She told me once I had the receipt, she would be able to retrieve my picture and details from their database. I was pleased and promised to come back the following day.
I did go back but unfortunately, the officer was not there. She had not gone to work that day so I asked if another officer could give me some assistance. I was told there was no-one else, except for that lady so I had to come back another time.
You can imagine how I felt. Why should one person be in charge of something that could be retrieved by anyone who had access to the database. I looked around the branch and something struck me as quite odd; I saw 3 customers sitting at different points of the banking hall had been waiting for a while for their respective  officers to report back to them. It seemed like it was taking forever and felt like the various officers had "disappeared" at the same time. Two of the poor chaps were tapping their feet and the third had bent his head and was staring at the floor. I felt sorry for them and then later that emotion vanished. Perhaps if they had been a bit more assertive, the would have been seen to by now....or then again I may be mistaking.

Generally in Ghana, customer service hardly exists and for me if you are providing a service, you have to really cater for all your customers in a manner that will make them return again and again. Every now and again, you meet a bright "star" who makes you smile or nod your head in agreement that the way they looked after you at your dinner table, or at the car wash, was special. However that is rare and there is so much room for improvement amongst those who provide services/products.

I hope I can write another piece about having received great customer service soon.

Case - I'm Missing You

Shock, Horror!

I sat watching Sky news completely aghast by the turn of events in the UK. My beloved London had become a war zone. I say beloved because I spent the latter part of my teenage years in the UK whilst doing sixth form and subsequently tertiary courses.
Though it was late, I started sending text messages and making Skype calls, leaving messages via Facebook to a number of family and friends who are also living in some of the places that had the worst rampages. I have fond memories of the Arndale Shopping centre in Manchester and tears filled my eyes just watching looters go wild, bashing the glass doors, lighting fires, etc.

I do know for a fact that the morale fabric in the UK has broken down over the years. Indiscipline, lack of respect and an aversion to people in authority, are some of of the things the youth can be accused of. Some young boys and girls who cannot find jobs are frustrated and do not have much faith in the government. Primarily because the government has let them down in more ways than one and  in addition, are cutting back on certain services available to the youth.

I think David Cameron and his party need to sit back and take a long hard think about how they can bring about peace and gaining the trust of the youth. Maybe the re-introduction of  the National Service may be the answer or redesigning the National Youth Scheme...I don't have the answers and I am only speculating. I do want to say congratulations to Mr. Sheldon Thomas for doing a yeoman's job in helping teenage boys get out of gangs. He saw and discussed a different angle of the looting and mayhem going on in the UK and it was refreshing.

I do hope and pray that the rioting stops and people can get back to feeling safe in their homes and shops.

Holiday

I had not taken a holiday in a long while but in August 2010 I took the plunge and visited Switzerland. I love Switzerland and first came here at the young age of 9. I fell in love with it and even then told myself I would be back. I did come back in July 1982. At the time the hit band "Imagination" had just come out with the top hit "Illusion". Anytime I hear that song, I remember walking by Lake Geneva, ice cream cone in hand and just enjoying the view of the Jet d'eau against the backdrop of the mountains.

I'm back again in Summer 2011 and this time staying for much longer and enjoying every bit of it. Weather has been great though we have had some rainy spells. Been up to Lugano and I will recommend it to everyone. Wow...that place really made an impression on me. I have made some new friends, people who are friends of friends from back home and it's been great.

I know I shall be back again and will take a whole new set of photos. In the meantime, enjoy some of my photos.

Shouting out Loud!

It's the first day of June and I am on my soap box. Mainly because things are generally going downhill and no-one seems to want to do anything about it. The largest teaching hospital in West Africa, reported last week that its anaesthesia equipment had broken down. As a result, all operations have been put on hold except for super emergencies. The public relations officer for the hospital had the gall to inform the public in such a way that it sounded like the machines (themselves) were responsible for breaking down.

Important arterial highways which should have been completed in 2009 are still being worked on and are causing motorists severe headaches. Illegal warehouses which stocked expired goods by some unscrupulous business owners were discovered by an ace investigative reporter who broke the story last week. However, the Food and Drugs board as well as the Revenue Authority have been told to drop the charges on the owners as they had powerful "friends" in the government's ruling party.

The Power generating company, Gridco have announced that there is going to be some load shedding however they cannot tell us which areas are going to be affected.

Seems to me like services are going downhill and no-one seems to be making any objections. Today I am shouting out loud because I have had enough. We had a huge fire which burnt a significant part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Reason: the ladder of the fire service truck was not long enough to reach the upper floors. Today 1st June, I was in traffic when I heard the head office of the Volta River Authority was on fire; predominantly the 11th and 12th floors. Did we learn from the Foreign Affairs building fire? Did we try and acquire trucks with longer ladders? NO!! So what are we waiting for? Another disaster?

The service providers have to be made accountable, the Ministers in charge of the ministries that are lagging behind need to be made accountable for the poor delivery of services and utilities. People really need to ask questions and be persistent with their line of questioning, if not, we are going to be fed the same spineless excuses we have been fed from time in memorial. Any wonder why a lot of the Ghanaians who live abroad but are looking to moving back home cannot make up their minds? Go figure!

Getting Vexed

Haven't been vexed in a long while but in the past couple of weeks it seems to be happening quite a bit. Vexed with circumstances that I find myself in, vexed with the routine at work, vexed with my ancient car which has decided to go crazy. Vexed with the drinking bar down the road for the blaring music day and night, vexed with shop keepers who don't give you the right change, until you do the calculation out loud (no paper mind you) just VEXED!!

Vexed in the morning, vexed in the afternoon and evening. Think the only time I'm not vexed is when I am sleeping. Vexed when you call people and they don't pick up their phones, vexed when they call you back much, much later when the spontaneity of the moment has dissipated. Was having a Skype conversation with a friend of mine a a couple of days ago and out of the blue, he asked a question and I replied in the negative. He told me he did not believe me and started to go on and on about the answer I gave was not correct. I was livid!!!" What did he know "I asked myself. "What proof does he have?" "Who has been feeding him with stories?" I have never been fond of people who could not take my word because I really do not see the point in telling untruths. I told him if he did not believe me,then that was his problem. What is the point of arguing with someone who has made up his or her mind already.

A friend of mine's favourite saying is: "He who angers you, controls you." So I am going to rid myself of all this anger because it seems like I am letting circumstances control me. "We run tings, tings don't run we.."

I need to detox. I shall go for a long walk, indulge in a massage and a facial, buy some lingerie...and of course read some of my favourite passages in the Bible.
Ok enough now, reading this is making me smile, which is a good sign but hey c'est la vie, n'est-çe pas?

J Martins - Cool Temper (Hot Naija!)